Padma Wulandari

Desert Star (A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel)

Book by Michael Connelly

DETAILS

Publisher : Little, Brown and Company (November 8, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 400 pages ISBN-10 : 0316485659 ISBN-13 : 978-0316485654 Item Weight : 1.28 pounds Dimensions : 6.45 x 1.25 x 9.65 inches Best Sellers Rank: #143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #11 in Police Procedurals (Books) #12 in Murder Thrillers #34 in Suspense Thrillers , LAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to hunt the brutal killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family. A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division. For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come volunteer as an investigator in her new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him. First priority for Ballard is to clear the unsolved rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The decades-old case is essential to the councilman who supported re-forming the unit, and who could shutter it again—the victim was his sister. When Ballard gets a “cold hit” connecting the killing to a similar crime, proving that a serial predator has been at work in the city for years, the political pressure has never been higher. To keep momentum going, she has to pull Bosch off his own investigation, the case that is the consummation of his lifelong mission. The two must put aside old resentments and new tensions to run to ground not one but two dangerous killers who have operated with brash impunity. In what may be his most gripping and profoundly moving book yet, Michael Connelly shows once again why he has been dubbed “one of the greatest crime writers of all time” (Ryan Steck, Crimereads ). Read more

REVIEW

****************** SOMETIMES YOU DO THE WRONG THING FOR THE RIGHT REASON ********************* Author Michael Connelly in perhaps what can be viewed as a complete turnaround from perhaps his worst entry in the Bosch series… his previous book “The Dark Hours” (see my previous review)… pens what I wholeheartedly consider as his absolute best in the entire series! Bosch is retired and showing his age in all walks of his life. Bosch is now around seventy-years-old… and the first ABSOLUTE-LITERARY-BULLSEYE for the author… is how he ages the Bosch character perfectly… and not with garish… or comical… or mean-spirited… swipes at our long time hero Harry Bosch. Though Connelly… throughout his writing history… always graciously thanks and lists at the end of his books… the names of experts in every endeavor from law enforcement to forensics to nephrology, geography, botany, genealogy… and on and on… I assure you he didn’t need much guidance in the all-around decaying of a once vibrant man… as the author is getting up in years… as this reviewer is himself. So what is fully appreciated by the reader is the subtle… but unfortunately true steps… OF-NO-LONGER-BEING-THE-MAN-YOU-ONCE-WERE! The small… but growing losing battles with balance… knees giving out… or painful when not giving out… and the inevitable combination simultaneously of both losses… in the inevitable losing battle with “Father-Time”! The fact that every staircase… every hour of the day or night… has to be anticipated… and approached… with a plan… is described perfectly and with dignity. “Co-Star” LAPD detective Renee’ Ballard has been put in charge of a new OPEN-UNSOLVED-CASE-UNIT… and her team will be made up of retired volunteers. And Renee’… mimicking Dodger manager Tommy LaSorda pulling a hobbling Kirk Gibson out of the dugout to hit the most dramatic home run in World Series history in game one of the 1988 Series… so does Renee’ pull the hobbled Bosch out of the dugout onto the field of play. The two main cases are one that has haunted… and stayed in Harry’s very soul for years… so much so if someone calls it “The Gallagher Case”… Harry is enraged and emotionally says: “I GUESS FIRST OF ALL, I DON’T CALL IT THE GALLAGHER CASE. I CALL IT THE GALLAGHER FAMILY CASE BECAUSE IT’S A QUADRUPLE KILLING, A WHOLE FAMILY: MOTHER, FATHER, NINE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, AND THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD-SON.” And the second case regards a decades old rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl who happened to be the sister of the city councilman who pushed to reactive the cold-case unit… and is the unit’s biggest supporter. Perhaps the biggest improvement in the area of plot and detail in this episode of Bosch and Ballard… is that in the previous saga it seemed that every other page was filled with everyone in law enforcement being anti-feminist... Misogynistic… or just hating their job in every echelon of police work. That literary stench has been wiped clean like a sidewalk after a summer rain. This story is sleek and nimble right from the get go. In just a few pages the reader clearly knows what the story agenda will encompass. The entire tale moves like a sports car in the car pool lane… with just the right amount of quips and veteran descriptors… such as this one letting readers old and new… know… that Harry has truly been around the block of life a few times… “HE HAD LOST MUCH OF HIS FAITH IN THE GOODNESS OF PEOPLE. TO HIM THE VIOLENCE WASN’T THE DEPARTURE FROM THE NORM. IT WAS THE NORM.” As I AM- A-PROUD-HONORABLY-DISCHARGED-VIET-NAM-ERA-VETERAN… as is Harry Bosch… the few but powerful links to Harry’s service are not only welcomed… but immensely enjoyed as to their quality. One such case was where Ballard makes a comment to Bosch about the first time she heard a song being played… Bosch responded with: “FIRST TIME I HEARD IT WAS ON A HARMONICA. A GUY IN VIETNAM. IT SOUNDED LIKE A FUNERAL SONG TO ME. AND THAT GUY, HE NEVER MADE IT HOME.” The story telling and the flow… is unstoppable from beginning to end... and in place of continual complaints about the LAPD and left wing comments in the previous book… there are some well-done intermittent characters on the new Cold-Case team… and to me the final icing on my celebratory great book cake… is that the most annoying young repetitive female character in an ongoing fictional detective series… Maddie… is barely in the book. This literally fits the guidelines of a book you don’t want to put down till you’re done!

DOWNLOAD PAGE